Various industries, such as the automotive industry, require a method of cleaning mechanical components which are subject to a build up of dirt, grease and oil. It is known to provide a parts washer in which the components may be placed to be cleaned. Such washers generally include a cleaning chamber into which the parts are placed and a fluid reservoir in which is stored cleaning fluid. A pump is provided to pump the cleaning fluid from the reservoir into the cleaning chamber via jets within the chamber to clean the parts. The cleaning fluid is then returned to the fluid reservoir.
The effectiveness of the parts washer is determined, at least partly, by the pressure of the cleaning fluid from the jets within the chamber. In order to provide higher pressure jets within the chamber, it is necessary to either increase the pressure provided by the pump or to decrease the number of jets. Both of these methods however have limitations. Providing higher pressure from the pump may require changing the pump itself and associated piping, leading to increased costs. Reducing the number of jets is also often not practical as this reduces the area within the parts washer impacted by the jets. An alternative method of increasing the pressure is by decreasing the size of the jets. This, however, can lead to increased likelihood of the jets blocking up.
A method of effectively increasing the pressure of fluid from the jets however would have the advantage of allowing lower strength cleaning agents to be used and/or lower temperatures in the parts washer. This would allow more environmentally friendly cleaning agents to be used and allow more efficient recycling and disposal of the waster water.
The present invention attempts to overcome at least in part the aforementioned disadvantages of previous parts washers.